Nintendo To Continue Bringing Third-Party Nintendo 3DS Titles To The West

While sales of the Wii U leave much to be desired, Nintendo’s Nintendo 3DS has sold over 40 million units worldwide. The 3DS is in a far better position than Wii U from both a hardware and sales perspective, and Nintendo say it will be their primary means of earning profits in their next fiscal year, which begins on April 1st, 2014.

Speaking with investors and analysts at a Q&A, Nintendo president Satoru Iwata shared that Nintendo intend to deliver a number of key Nintendo 3DS titles this year.

“Since Nintendo 3DS has an installed base of more than 40 million units globally as I mentioned earlier, we are now getting to the point where it is impossible not to turn a profit with our software business,” Iwata stated. “We have many key titles to be released in this calendar year and we will strive to drive profits from these titles. Seen in this light, I believe the key profit-driver for the next fiscal year will be Nintendo 3DS.”

Three of these “key titles” that Nintendo have already revealed presumably include Kirby Triple Deluxe, Yoshi’s New Island and the new Super Smash Bros. game; but in addition to first-party games, Iwata says Nintendo will continue to publish certain third-party 3DS titles from Japan in the west, both this year and the next.

“We sometimes distribute, or even publish depending on the circumstances, games that were made by Japanese software publishers in the overseas markets, and you can expect to see more examples of this this year and the next,” Iwata said to investors.

(The most recent example of this is Square Enix’s Bravely Default, an RPG for 3DS.)

Finally, Iwata also stated that more third-party publishers in the west are taking note of the fact that Nintendo 3DS sales are over 10 million in both the U.S. and Europe, but since western developers are more focused on delivering high-end games for home consoles, they’re still in the process of figuring out what kind of 3DS games to develop.

All of those have Western trademarks (even Youkai Watch, which has essentially the Ninokuni DS 2 engine), so it’s very likely they’re coming in some form (either Nintendo of Level-5 themselves)
I wish they’d localize Gaist Crusher too, it deserves a second shot. Treasure games often were saved by the overseas sales.

Guest

Gaist Crusher would be great too, but who knows what Capcom’s plans are after the bad reception it had in Japan. Just let’s hope it’s not a Time Travelers scenario…

tvrsteve

Maybe they can start by actually using those European Shin Megami Tensei IV rights already…

TheRealMalek

When i see the thread i was going to post that…

iamtehultimatepwnage .

dragon quest monsters plz………

Lalum

and 7

Grape Monet

Remember when Nintendo of America published all of Square-Enix’s GBA games? Good times. I’d like to see something similar happen again.

ronin4life

… did they ever really stop?
I think most if not all DQ games on DS were Nintendo(IX most definitely) and they just did Bravely Default.

Grape Monet

IX, VI and Monsters Joker. The rest of Square Enix’s DS games were published by Square Enix themselves.

Jero

We will get Bravely Second much sooner in comparison to the first one. Also this probably means Persona Q will arrive, but I didn’t have any doubts about that one. Other 3rd party games… I can’t really think of them but this means that any interesting tittle that comes in Japan will be seen here too.

I don’t think that would be gender equality. You mean sexuality equality? x’D
(To fit the joke of course, because Fox would be too simple-minded to miss the obvious.)

idrawrobots

Fox News meme. :/

Spirit Macardi

Considering SMT has come over without incident, which features not only the ability to side with demons and wage war against heaven, but also a giant green dick riding a chariot, I don’t honestly think they care about niche Japanese titles.

SirRichard

Dragon Quest seems like the most obvious, what with Nintendo having done Bravely Default and the DS Dragon Quests, but I wonder if there’s anything else? And I wonder if they’re counting Layton VS AA or if that’s solely Level-5 International.

On the topic of 3DS games from third-party Western devs, one title I’d be really curious to see is some sort of sequel or spiritual successor to GTA: Chinatown Wars from Rockstar. The original game was one of the only examples of a major Western dev putting a full-scale effort into a DS title, and the result was really interesting as a game designed from the bottom up for that hardware. As perverse as their imaginations may be, Rockstar have proven themselves to be really creative when it comes to imagining novel utilities for new hardware, and I’d be curious to see what they could come up with on the 3DS, with features like stereoscopic 3D, AR/photo functionality, the pedometer and StreetPass available to them in addition to the more advanced hardware.

Guest

That game was great, only GTA I’ve completed 100%! It was a lots of fun!

JonathanisPrimus

Chinatown Wars wasn’t successful, and the studio that made that (alongside the two PSP Stories games) has since been gutted. They only do ports now. The creative leads have moved on to other studios.

Shippoyasha

The game was awesome but the sales really were disappointing. Stuff like that won’t bode well for developers wanting to break into handhelds when even giant brand names like GTA doesn’t do as well as it should. Maybe gamers just didn’t expect to play a GTA game on the DS compared to the games DS players usually played.

JonathanisPrimus

The Stories games sold really well on PSP. It was just that no one wanted a top down GTA anymore.

The history of 3DS sales though proves that brand names other than Mario and Pokemon can succeed on the system, which is something that wasn’t quite as true on the DS as far as I’m aware.

Oltheros

That’s cool, as long as they don’t do to them what they did to Bravely Default (I.e. censor them)

M’iau M’iaut

Guys. Going to ask that we try and not rehash the same old same old battles here. And yes, I trust ya all to know what those are.

GDI

It would help if all the Nintendo articles would be unified before posting. Right now it seems like:

1.) Nintendo thinks this
2.) Nintendo thinks that
3.) Nintendo decides to do this
4.) Nintendo decides to do that

And of course each time the same commentary type appears.

M’iau M’iaut

And in large part the ‘this and that’ comes down to what Ninty is reporting and releasing and when. Meaning discussing a lack of focus is perfectly legitimate.

No I was speaking more of posts which go back far longer than that.

Adrián Alucard

SMT IV, please. And DeSu 2

Tsurugi

DavidES, I need the Inazuma Eleven GO! too could be both IE 1-2-3 and GO! for USA , and all of Level-5 games that you said would be nice , Danball Senki Wars is amazing!

GDI

I admit the only reason I bought a 3DS was because that’s where the only remaining Japanese games made by medium sized studios are releasing on. (Also, ditto the PS Vita and the more otaku-centric studios). I did not care about Western games because the shovelware makers on DS and Wii moved on to mobile; while the indies did better on PC.

You want Japanese games (especially the non-F2P ones) you buy a 3DS. A shame it had to be region-locked, but this news that since they have the install base, they are starving for content and Japan has a lot of content.

Shippoyasha

If you look at 3DS offerings, almost all of it is Japanese centric after all. There are some otaku games on it too but the lack of region free gaming means it’s harder to import unless you buy the Japanese 3DS.

It will be an uphill battle to demand riskier or very niche games though.

Michael Richardson

Agreed. I buy consoles for the Japanese games, and right now the handhelds are looking far more attractive than any of the next-gen home consoles. ESPECIALLY the 3DS.

Kaboom

Two words.

DRAGON. QUEST.

Bring them over. Bring them ALL over. Actually bother to promote them well like you did with DQ9, and people will be straight-up DEVOUR them.

Slickyslacker

They’re happening. Almost definitely.

[Nintendo Direct Anticipation Intensifies]

Kaboom

Even though I want the 3DS remakes of Monsters and DQ7 the most, I think Nintendo is foolishly missing out on not bringing DQX outside of Japan, too. Skip the Wii version if necessary, but it sure wouldn’t hurt those Wii U sales numbers if you hyped it up as the system’s first big MMORPG.

Adrian Duran

THIS

Nhazul

nom.nom.nom.

Audie Bakerson

They’ve also done it a few times for western games in Japan (Just Dance off the top of my head).

YouGusta

Take note Sony!

MitsukiIX

Yes pls nintendo localize exstetra 3ds so peoples will know the pain i went through trying to play the game ahaha enjoy using a healing spell (out of battle) only to be warped back through 4 different menus… but i will stop complaining now too busy making 2 boys kiss.

Laith Rem

So… Project Mirai when?

ronin4life

I feel like “Never”… it didn’t sell super well in Japan IIRC, is cutesy and Sega were hesitant to bring over Diva.

Which is a shame. I think it is a lot more fun than Diva personally.

KiTA

So… where’s ANY of the 6 Dragon Quest games we haven’t gotten? DQ7, DQM Terry’s Wonderland, Dragon Quest X… where are they? It’s not like the market for JRPGs is dead or something.

Slickyslacker

FF XIV is one of the biggest reasons why DQ X hasn’t come over.

KiTA

Market segmentation. DQX caters to a much different (casual) crowd than FFXIV.

Slickyslacker

No, not necessarily. As a matter of fact, DQ fans tend to be more “hardcore” than FF fans, so to speak. Moreover, DQ is far less popular in the West.

M’iau M’iaut

Which makes quite possibly a real reason the game has not come. Concerns that a lot of DQ fans would want an online experience more akin to WoW or 14 rather than PSOv2.

KiTA

Not what I meant. In MMORPG terms, a Casual player is one who plays for a few hours at night, perhaps a bit more on the weekends. A Hardcore player is one who sacrifices sleep for gaming, plays the entire weekend, et cetera.

DQX doesn’t really have the raids and bosses and whatnot that FFXIV has. Heck, DQX’s endgame is based around a roguelike system, the evolution of DQ9’s grottos.

Slickyslacker

Ah, I see. You were speaking to DQ X itself, not the entire series.

Right. I’m sure XIV has far more “endgame” content than X.

D H

DQX won’t happen until at least the PC version gets up and running. It’d be throwing it to the dogs only releasing on the Wii/Wii U, and with the very realistic potential for very low sales, it could also very well kill any chance we have at future DQ games, because people don’t like to look at the whole picture, just “oh look, that one game failed, they don’t want this game then”.

Once the PC version launches and becomes stable, then we can talk.

KiTA

So… 5 months ago? The PC version launched officially in September 2013, I believe. The expansion (DQX 2.0) came out for Wii/WiiU/PC, too.

D H

Ah, did it? Well, good then, at least we’re a step closer. I’ve not followed it, what with there being so many MMOs and all…

Anyways, that gives us a chance of seeing it still, but I don’t know how well those chances are on the Wii U still, considering the lower numbers, it seems almost a waste to put the effort into translating it there, and I doubt Nintendo themselves would handle it, as obviously, based on the past, they wouldn’t touch the PC version. If anything, it’d be S-E doing the work and Nintendo maybe publishing the Wii U version, but I’m still not going to hold my breath on that one.

Slickyslacker

Aside from the titles that have already been trademarked: (presumably) DQ VII 3DS and Terry’s Wonderland, Youkai Watch, and obvious releases like Triple Deluxe, why don’t we make a list of possible releases that haven’t been announced?

I’m going to import that one, I love Nintendo but I don’t want Ages of Amazones to get ruined by them. >_>

It would be cool if it came though.

ShawnOtakuSomething

Love Plus, Dragon Quest , Fantasy Life, Digimon! ,Captain rainbow, Disaster: Day of Crisis or wait the last two are wii games >_>

Tincho Kudos

Great, now localize Fantasy Life!

Tom

Great! I like the new way Nintendo is taking! I really hope they can keep it up and bring us more Bravely Default and lots of lots of RPGs.

mojack411

My hype for the next Nintendo Direct is building up exponentially.

artemisthemp

So where is Rune Factory 4 or Shin Megami Tensei IV?

SMT

Rune Factory 4 is quite complicated due to the parent company going bankrupt, sadly this means there’s a chance we’ll never see this in Europe, especially with the region lock…

Shin Megami Tensei IV, on the other hand… I still have no idea whatsoever how that game wasn’t released here a long time ago, and even more baffled that we know absolutely nothing about a release date. It’s got incredible appeal and all it needs is proper marketing in order to be successful, and it baffles me that Nintendo didn’t publish this only shortly after the American release.

Kaetsu

SMTIV not being out in Europe yet is due to the fact that Atlus doesn’t have an office in Europe so they have to find someone else to publish it like Nintendo or Ghostlight.

SMT

The thing is, Nintendo announced that it will publish the game in Europe during one of their Nintendo Directs…
So unless there’s a software problem like with DS Overclocked that requires Atlus, or there’s a legal battle on the rights to publication (Like that deal that Atlus seems to have made with NISA to publish games in Europe), Atlus not having an office outside of Japan and the US is not the issue.

fireguardiancoty

In the US.

BillyMK

I really hope that means Dragon Quest VII

Pythia Brixham

Digimon World Re:Digitize Decode.

Christopher Nunes

This, so much!

They better bring it over to the US! I finally imported a Japanese 3DS LL and the game itself but I would LOVE to play it and understand what the characters are saying and everything!

So far I’ve got a MetalGreymon, but I’m looking forward to raising a Veemon and Dorumon soon enough! I’m loving the extra story bits present in the 3DS game… I feel like the game’s is more complete now.

Spirit Macardi

How the hell that game isn’t already over here baffles me. Digimon has already come back with not only Fusion playing on TV but toys coming to stores, so a game coming next seems like it would be an obvious choice.

News flash: this is 2014, not 2010. They’ve been bringing stuff overseas for a good while now.

Spirit Macardi

Except it hasn’t been their own doing for the most part. For instance, the Tales games are all localized pretty much entirely by Tales Studio. Namco as a company hasn’t done anything to aid them, the increased localization has been because the Tales series is starting to earn more money overseas which has provided Baba and the others with more potential funding.

And yes, while the company has been localizing some games recently, most of those are titles that other companies made (Ni no Kuni, One Piece: Pirate Warriors, etc.), while many of their own games still stay in Japan.

fireguardiancoty

Namco Tales Studio hasn’t existed for about 2 years. They are the people who made the games, not bring them over. It’s all done by Bandai Namco now.

MrRobbyM

So many games that need to get localized. My 3DS is wondering why I bought it in the first place with Animal Crossing in it.

Anthony Hadow

Hopefully this means Dragon Quest titles

idrawrobots

Do I need to get out a list for you Nintendo?

DarkLight

Don’t worry, I wrote a small list already.

idrawrobots

I will mention one thing, going way back I would gladly take an eShop only Soma Bringer.

Kaetsu

Wasn’t that a Monolith Soft game?

idrawrobots

It sure is!

Slickyslacker

Oh god, I love you for bringing up Soma Bringer.

ASH: Archaic Sealed Heat would be a great eShop exclusive too. Maybe one day on the Wii U?

Considering how old they are, they might even qualify as VC games. That is to say, I don’t know what other category they would be released in.

DarkLight

New love plus+?
If they bring over Digimon World Re;Digitize Decode,I would start back using my 3ds.They also need to bring over the Dragon Quest titles and fantasy life and Inazuma eleven and all those other games I can’t recall right now.Oh and the project Mirai games.
Funny thing: I mainly play nintendo consoles but I don’t ever play their 1st party titles lol.

We Europeans are still waiting for SMT IV and cause RF4 got cancelled it pissed me so off. 3rd party support sucks and you know it. (There are more reasons why i’m selling it but i could make a 10 pages long essay about that…)

What about it? That’s third party support right there. Do you even know what that means?

AkuLord3

I don’t think he does…

icecoffemix

I think he’s speaking from his experience and it’s clear that he can’t speak japanese or/and don’t own a japanese/us 3ds.

fireguardiancoty

Import?

JMaster3000

The whole console and pay abnormal taxes? No thank you.

Göran Isacson

You do realize that what Nintendo is saying is that they’ll try to get the games you talk about out SOONER, right? Like, Nintendo helped us in the EU get Bravely Default, even sooner than our American counterparts! Yet SMT IV was handled by Atlus itself, and is taking it’s sweet time… EXCEPT for the versions in Taiwanese and Korean, which was handled by, again, Nintendo. Really, Nintendo handling localizations in the future is a reason to KEEP the XL, if anything.

The only 3rd party 3DS games I care about and want (off the top of my head, that is) are Monster Hunter (4 Ultimate is on it’s way ^_^), Dragon Quest (DQ VII please) and Atlus titles (SMT IV and Etrian Odyssey Untold, I’m Australian xD). So, Nintendo, I know your helping Capcom already, but can you also help Square Enix and Atlus?

sammy11

Where the **** is Mario Golf ?

bjwanlund

Maybe that would bode really well for the Game Center CX game on 3DS? Because Nintendo does promote him heavily in Japan, but he really could use the promotional muscle of a company like Nintendo in the West.

CozyAndWarm

Well hopefully Nintendo won’t continue their ridiculous censorship, after the changes they made to Bravely Default. I do want Dragon Quest and Digimon on my 3DS, I wouldn’t mind Yakuza on Wii U either

Akira Takeshima

They made changes to Bravely Default? Link to source? I wasn’t aware of that.

Beta

Afaik, they only changed the ages of Agnes and her companions and hid a little bit of skin in some of the Job costumes. Nothing major, really. I, for one, don’t really mind.

British_Otaku

Changed the ages of all of the lead characters to 18 iirc and censored a bunch of costumes a bit.

While it is moderate, it is far from ideal when the game would be fine with either one (though changing ages causes continuity errors and editting costumes is weird when they are still somewhat fanservicey or perhaps more), the game doesn’t focus on the fanservice enough (neither does Tekken which has more realistic character designs and lets you mess around with costumes and designs a huge amount) to earn a T from that.

It is bad enough that I’m importing from Japan, though I had a J3DS in advance so it was always going to be my ideal choice.

I hope so, because the third party titles we get here in the US are mostly awful. “Imagination: Vet” while Japan gets Love Plus games for boys and girls. Really irks me the difference between the quality of the games.

Some of those stand a chance and even had predecessors with Nintendo getting involved, but I don’t see a chance of Detective Conan getting any games localised.

Beta

Yeah, I know that it’s highly unlikely that any Detective Conan games would be localised, but yeah… A man can dream, right? Besides, they DID localise that Detective Conan that released on the Wii, so it’s not completely out of the question. Highly doubtful it would be localised, but still not out of the question.

Prinny Dood

I’ll take the second senran kugura for 3ds. Not talking about shinovi versus, but the sequel to the 3ds, although I would like shinovi as well. Oh marvelous aql:-)

“Finally, Iwata also stated that more third-party publishers in the west are taking note of the fact that Nintendo 3DS sales are over 10 million in both the U.S. and Europe, but since western developers are more focused on delivering high-end games for home consoles, they’re still in the process of figuring out what kind of 3DS games to develop.”
I certainly hope this catches on… western development needs to expand beyond yearly blockbusters.(even if it’s just a tiny bit) Most companies can’t even compete in this space anyways and just have marketing carry the sales of mediocre games.

Nanashrew

Well they used to. I remember buying Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 2 on GBA at launch. It was pretty cool. Too bad we don’t see any more of that.